It is customary in endoscopic surgical interventions to create several means of access to the surgical area in order to have at least one accessway for conveying medical instruments such as cutting and/or gripping instruments into the surgical area for conducting an operation and to have at least one additional accessway for conveying an observation unit, such as an endoscope, into the area for observation and control of the operation.
The various medical instruments are conveyed into the operating area after configuration of an initial skin incision by hollow shafts. Because a great range of medical instruments are inserted into these hollow shafts, the shafts must be so configured that they fulfill the various requirements demanded of the shaft by the insertion of the particular instrument. For instance, while inserting an endoscope into the hollow shaft, in order to create sufficient space for rinsing inside the hollow shaft, by which the endoscope lens system can be cleaned during the operation, shafts known in the art comprise lateral rinsing holes or distal inserts, which on the other hand reduce the flow of rinsing agents and the turbulence or else are unnecessary or can even be a hindrance for other instrument inserts.
It is therefore the object of the invention to create a surgical instrument system that consists of a hollow shaft and of a medical instrument that can be inserted into the hollow shaft and that is of simple construction and offers a range of uses.